Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Historian; Author, NYT Bestseller Strongmen; Publisher, Lucid, a Substack newsletter on authoritarianism and threats to democracy; Film & TV Consultant
- Classic authoritarian logic: corrupt people by giving them an incentive to do the wrong thing. In 1933 and 1938, years of major assaults on targeted groups, the Nazis forgave the debt of other Germans to bind them to the regime.
- The arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are part of the autocratic war to control the narrative. The more lawless governments become, the more they seek to silence inconvenient facts and people and invent the reality they need.
- Now, they are not just going after corporate media: they are going after independent journalists too. But always remember, there are more of us than there are of them, and they can’t silence all of us. Keep speaking out, keep telling the truth.
- Under authoritarian regimes, public spheres — streets, parks, neighborhood — become testing grounds for authoritarian rituals of humiliation and domination.
